Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral stands at the centre of Mtskheta, the ancient capital of the Georgian kingdom of Kartli, known to Greek and Roman writers as Iberia, where the Aragvi river meets the Mtkvari, or Kura, just north of Tbilisi. Its name means “the life-giving pillar”. According to Georgian tradition, King Mirian III was converted to Christianity by Saint Nino in the fourth century and built the first church on this spot, a wooden one, and the robe of Christ is said to be buried beneath the cathedral.

For centuries Kartli lay between the Roman and Iranian worlds, and its history was closely bound to Iran's. Mirian III was the first of the Chosroid kings, a dynasty generally held to be of Iranian origin, and Kartli was long subject to Sasanian overlordship, with Iranian governors in Tbilisi in the sixth century. Georgian and Persian literature also met in later centuries: the Persian romance Vis and Ramin was retold in Georgian prose in the twelfth century, and the Shahnameh was adapted into Georgian verse.

The present cathedral was built between 1010 and 1029, under the Catholicos Melkisedek, by an architect named in an inscription on the facade as Arsukisdze. It is a great cross-shaped church of pale stone with a tall central dome, its walls carved with reliefs and decorative arcades. It was damaged by invaders and earthquakes over the centuries and repaired many times, and it is still a working cathedral and the burial place of many Georgian kings. UNESCO inscribed the historical monuments of Mtskheta in 1994.